Talking Pulp Update (2/16/2022): Talking Pulp Press Is Live!

My new book, the first in a long series, is now out (buy it here) and my focus has switched to promoting that and working on its first sequel, as well as a short story anthology.

This has begun to monopolize my time. Also, my annoyance over WordPress shenanigans has my attention away from this blog and more focused on developing and growing what I hope is a new publishing imprint that can create and distribute a lot of stories I love.

I’ve launched Talking Pulp Press, which is currently where I’m at on Substack. It’s main purpose, for now, is to chronicle the creation of my Barbarians of the Storm book series, as well as some future anthologies featuring other genre fiction writers.

I’m also planning on releasing books with some of my writing on film, most of which has been featured on this site.

For now, you can find me here on Substack.

As far as this blog goes, I don’t plan on nuking it. In fact, when things are moving at a normal pace and I have some balance and more free time, I think that this blog will get rolling again. I just don’t know when that will be.

Talking Pulp Update (2/7/2022): Am I Done with Talking Pulp?… Probably Not

If you’ve read my previous site update or any of my last few reviews, you’re well aware of my frustration with the WordPress platform. However, I found that you can still edit in the Classic Editor without paying $300 per year for plugins, thanks to a link in a not so obvious place.

Still, I’ve moved on to working on my book series, the first one already being published (see here). I’m already working on the follow-up book to that, as well as the first short story anthology. These projects are going to monopolize a lot of my time and I’ve kind of really enjoyed my two months off from writing here. It was a much needed break that allowed me to get the first book done, as well as having the holidays to relax when I wasn’t writing.

Anyway, I don’t think that this is the end of Talking Pulp, I think I’ll naturally ease back into it when I’m ready. But I don’t know if I’ll ever post as often as I have been for over five years now. I reviewed a ton of stuff and accomplished my goals with the site, at least those goals that had actual finish lines.

In the meantime, I’m thinking of starting a sister blog site where I discuss my books and writing in general throughout each pulp novels creation process. I’ll post a link in an update below whenever I get that up and running.

Lastly, I’m thinking of collecting big batches of reviews on specific genres and subjects and releasing them as cheap books. The first of which would probably be all of my Mystery Science Theater 3000 reviews. 

Talking Pulp Update (1/5/2022): The Book Is FINALLY Published – Introducing ‘Dan the Destructor – Barbarians of the Storm, Book I’!

For those who have been following this site for awhile, you might already know that I wrote a graphic novel script about two years ago when all the COVID stuff was kicking off.

You might also know that I wanted to expand on the ideas and stories in that script and decided to restructure it into a pulp novel format. Well, that’s finally done!

Physical copies of the book can be purchased here. The book is also on Amazon: the Kindle version is here and the physical version is here.

However, physical books are better and since this is patterned after the pulp novels of yesteryear, I think that the physical pocket book is a lot cooler.

So what’s Dan the Destructor about? Well, here’s the blurb from the back of the book:

There have been countless legends and with that, countless heroes destined to be the “chosen one”. Dan is not that person.

Sucked into an exotic, barbarous world, Dan meets a jovial warrior and finds himself on an adventure he could’ve never imagined – battling monsters, demons, armies, and evil sorcerers.

Dan the Destructor is a mixture of sword & sorcery and post-apocalyptic B-movies presented in a quick paced pulp novel format. It’s fun, badass, fantastical, and action-packed.

Beyond that, the original idea for this concept came when I was imagining what it would be like if the ’80s Italian and Spanish rip-offs of Conan the Barbarian and The Road Warrior merged into one thing. I have always loved these sort of movies and was pretty much raised on them and all the Cannon Films action flicks. So this blends all those badass things together and tries to keep that tough as nails but awesome spirit alive.

This is also very much influenced by the pulp novels and pulp heroes I’ve read since I was a kid.

Entertainment has lost itself in recent years and its generally become an uninspiring, bleak reflection of reality. Gone are the days of adventure, fun and genuine escapism. With Dan the Destructor, I tried to bring this back.

With that, this shouldn’t be taken too seriously. I just wanted to create the book that I wanted to read and I hope that other people enjoy it and that it gives them a much needed break from reality.

The novel also features a short story at the end, which tells the origin of the big villain for the book series. While that is a very dark story, I thought that it was necessary in providing the proper context for that character going into the second book in the Barbarians of the Storm series.

If people like this series, I promise not to George R.R. Martin you. I will give you your ending.

Lastly, I listen to a lot of music while writing and during the creative process, I developed a playlist that has become the unofficial soundtrack of the book for me. Honestly, all badass books deserve soundtracks and I think it helps set the tone for what to expect with the story.

Talking Pulp Update (12/6/2021): I’m Done with WordPress; The End Is Here… Well, Almost

Well, the end is here for Talking Pulp. Not exactly yet but about two months from now.

It’s been just over five years and I accomplished the goals I set out to do. Or at least the ones I could finish. But I’ve been over all that in some of the most recent site updates.

The reason why this is the end of the road is that I’m tired of WordPress’ fuckery. I hate the fucking Block Editor and want to continue to use the Classic Editor. To do that now, I have to pay $300 per year, in one lump sum, to be able to use the plugin that will allow that. This was always free until just over a year ago when they decided to strip away regular features and functions that the website has always had in an effort to force their shitty Block Editor on their customers. Among some other shitty things.

Yes, customer applies here because I’ve always given WordPress money for upgrades, domains, packages, features, etc. I paid the fucking $300, last year, simply because I hadn’t fully reached my goals with the site and I always had the plan of doing this particular site for a minimum of five years and then reevaluating on whether or not I had a reason to keep going or to move on to something else.

I’ve been using WordPress for a decade and a half. I’ve had close to a dozen different websites over the years, some of which brought in over 100K people per month.

As I type this, I loathe this Block Editor I have to use, right now. If some people prefer this trash, that’s their business. But there should still be the option between using this or the Classic Editor that doesn’t cost $300 dollars just to use a free fucking plugin. I don’t care about the other features in that $300 tier.

So with that, my posts that have been scheduled out till February 4th, 2022 will still post. After that, you’ll get what will probably be my final message.

I’m already working on other big projects that require my creative energy and writing time. Maybe, at some point, I will resurrect this all, someplace else.

 

 

Talking Pulp Update (11/19/2021): Happy 5th Anniversary to Us!

Well, it’s been five years to the day that Talking Pulp (then Cinespiria) posted its first review. Actually there were two that day: the original Django and War of the Gargantuas.

Since then, I’ve recently surpassed 5000 total posts and 2500 film reviews. Not to mention 800 comic reviews and over 200 reviews in the categories of books, video games, television shows and documentaries.

While I have always aimed for more featured articles and commentary, I’ve still produced quite a bit in that regard and have also revived relevant posts from blogs past.

Additionally, this site started with three objectives, which I have either completed or continue to work at, as not all the objectives have an actual finish line. Those original objectives were:

1. Review every film ever featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000. – COMPLETE
2. Review every film from every major franchise or film series that I’m interested in (and some I’m not). – MOSTLY COMPLETE, I haven’t touched Fast & Furious, the Michael Bay Transformers, The Hunger Games, Shrek or Twilight and don’t have immediate plans to because I don’t hate myself that much.
3. Draw attention to lesser-known films that deserve more recognition. – THIS CAN NEVER BE COMPLETE, granted Hollywood’s output the last few years has primarily been atrocious.

I’m also at this point where my time is much more limited than it used to be. Month after month, I feel like this site is coming very close to its end but somehow I still manage to get out enough content to have a regular schedule and to have stuff scheduled out a month in advance and sometimes more.

However, I need to buckle down and finish one book I’ve been pushing back for some time. It’s the same project that started as a graphic novel script, roughly 18 months ago. However, I want to make it a 150-200 page pulp novel and I have lots of ideas on how I want to expand it and also, make it a series going forward.

But back to celebrating where Talking Pulp has come, thus far.

I wanted to list out the top tags in certain categories. For one, I’m curious to see what I’ve written about most and also, maybe it helps the readers of Talking Pulp realize what we’ve covered and they’ll want to search those tags themselves. And one thing I’ve prided myself on since starting this site was curating tags in a way that made it easy for the reader to cross-reference and pull things up on specific actors, directors, genres, years, notable studios, etc.

So here we go with some top ten lists of the most tagged things in their specific categories.

Film Reviews by Decades:
1. 2010s (610)
2. 1980s (572)
3. 1990s (355)
4. 1970s (296)
5. 1960s (239)
6. 2000s (238)
7. 1950s (198)
8. 1940s (146)
9. 2020s (66)
10. 1930s (36)

Film Reviews by Years:
1. 2017 (115)
2. 1987 (81)
3. 2014 (77)
4. 1986 (73)
5. 1985 (70)
6. 2016 (68)
7. 2015 (68)
8. 1988 (67)
9. 1989 (66)
10. 2019 (65)

Top Genres Reviewed:
1. action (2015)
2. sci-fi (1639)
3. adventure (1581)
4. horror (1177)
5. thriller (1018)
6. fantasy (1007)
7. drama (956)
8. crime (947)
9. comedy (767)
10. superhero (723)

Top Directors/Producers Reviewed:
1. Roger Corman (62)
2. George Lucas (47)
3. Steven Spielberg (37)
4. John Carpenter (36)
5. Dino De Laurentiis (29)
6. Joel Silver (26)
7. J. J. Abrams (23)
8. Ishirō Honda (22)
9. John Landis (22)
10. Orson Welles (20)

Top Actors:
1. Vincent Price (46)
2. Christopher Lee (46)
3. Peter Cushing (38)
4. Samuel L. Jackson (37)
5. Arnold Schwarzenegger (37)
6. Sylvester Stallone (34)
7. Dick Miller (25)
8. Johnny Depp (23)
9. Laurence Fishburne (22)
10. Simon Pegg (21)

Top Actresses:
1. Lois Maxwell (16)
2. Jamie Lee Curtis (14)
3. Mary Woronov (14)
4. Gal Gadot (13)
5. Emma Stone (13)
6. Caroline Munro (12)
7. Sigourney Weaver (12)
8. Cate Blanchett (12)
9. Mary Ellen Trainor (12)
10. Nancy Allen (11)

Top Tagged Studios:
1. Disney (240)
2. Toho (92)
3. Lucasfilm (86)
4. American International Pictures (74)
5. Hammer Films (56)
6. Cannon Films (49)
7. New World Pictures (42)
8. Toei (39)
9. Daiei (22)
10. Amicus Productions (12)

Top Tagged Franchises:
1. Marvel (546)
2. DC Comics (369)
3. G.I. Joe (84)
4. Star Wars (70)
5. Godzilla (67)
6. Conan the Barbarian (48)
7. Star Trek (40)
8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (37)
9. Dracula (37)
10. James Bond (33)

Top Tagged Countries/Regions (other than the US):
1. UK (321)
2. Japan (203)
3. Italy (139)
4. Canada (117)
5. France (80)
6. Germany (68)
7. Spain (45)
8. Australia (40)
9. Hong Kong (35)
10. Mexico (25)

Top Tagged Comic Book Characters:
1. Batman (168)
2. Spider-Man (110)
3. Wolverine (95)
4. Captain America (90)
5. Iron Man (83)
6. The Joker (71)
7. Fantastic Four (68)
8. Nightwing (67)
9. Thor (65)
10. Superman (64)

Top Vids I Dig Sources:
1. Cartoonist Kayfabe (79)
2. The Critical Drinker (77)
3. Whang! (66)
4. Razörfist (64)
5. Filmento (55)
6. Defunctland (50)
7. Yesterworld (48)
8. Midnight’s Edge (47)
9. Toy Galaxy (36)
10. The Attic Dwellers (33)

Talking Pulp Update (10/22/2021): 5000 Posts! & Halloween Week

So it’s my 5000th post! I guess that’s a milestone and somewhat significant. It also comes about a month shy of this site’s 5th anniversary. Tomorrow also kicks off Halloween week on Talking Pulp, which will actually go for nine days!

The next week will be full of more reviews that I typically write in an entire month. That’s a lot of horror to celebrate one of my favorite times of the year!

That’s pretty much it! I hit a major milestone and I’m dropping a major amount of content!

Talking Pulp Update (9/13/2021): Halloween Week and Thereafter

It’s been a really long time since I’ve posted a site update but I’ve been really ahead on content and the posts I’m writing are scheduled out about a month and a half into the future. Because of that, I lost track of time in regards to what I was scheduling and almost shot passed October without acknowledging the greatest month for horror movies.

So instead of my Halloween celebration, which typically goes on for several weeks, I’m going to be condensing a lot of content to the week of Halloween. Since it falls on a Sunday, I will have posts and reviews that weekend, the previous week and the previous weekend that are horror-centric. I’m also doubling down on the typical level of output, so it will be a week packed full of good shit.

Beyond Halloween, we come to Talking Pulp’s 5th Anniversary at the end of November. I’m also approaching 5000 posts and that’s a pretty significant milestone. I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet for that milestone and and upcoming anniversary. However, things may be pretty bleak going forward.

It seems like every year, leading into the final quarter, I start to think about ending this site. Well, I’m now leaning towards that decision stronger than ever.

For one, I already accomplished the goals I set out to accomplish when I first started Talking Pulp, as Cinespiria, back in 2016. So to be frank, I’m less enthused about putting as much work into this as I have for the past half decade.

Additionally, in the modern world, people seem to read less… a lot less. While subscribers and new readers grow, total visits and engagement have tanked. In fact, I used to get a comment or two on every post in the early days, when I got shit for traffic. Now, it’s been months since anyone has commented on anything.

While my mind is not 100 percent made up on this or when I would actually step away, I feel like the end is nigh.

Although, I don’t think I’d just pull the plug and nuke everything. I will most likely leave the site up and at some point, maybe I’ll have the urge to bring it back, full steam. Or, I may just post periodically when I see a new movie or read a new comic that I feel like I need to talk about or put a spotlight on.

I guess we’ll see in the next few months. But for those that still read this site regularly, I figured I’d give you all the heads up.

Talking Pulp Update (3/9/2021): A Bit More Content Coming

I haven’t given an update in awhile, which I guess means that things have been going fairly smoothly.

However, I did cut back the content output at the beginning of the year due to being overworked and burnt out in my real job. Also, time was really scarce and I was working on some other things but also trying to take it easy.

I’m now way ahead on scheduling content. It’s early March but I have posts already written and scheduled out into the first week of May.

Because of that, I feel like I have a bit of a time buffer. So I’m going to bring back weekend posts starting on May 1st. I want to use Saturdays and Sundays to add in some extra film reviews and Vids I Dig posts. I think the general plan for the weekend reviews will just be me trying to work through my multiple streaming queues that have had films languishing there for years.

We’ve all got those movies floating around at the bottom of our queue barrels and it’s way past time that I work towards clearing them out.

Plus, I also have multiple lists I’ve compiled of films I need to cover for Talking Pulp. Between my multiple queues and these expansive lists, I’ve got several hundred if not well over a thousand motion pictures to work through. It’s a huge task and the lists will always grow but I never thought I’d have written 4500 posts/3600 reviews in under five years either.

Ideally, I wish that I could go back to publishing four-to-five posts per day like I was doing at this site’s peak but that’ll just lead to me crashing and burning again.

I need time for the real job, my side hustles and I have a book I need to work on, which I’m passionate about and overwhelmed by at the same time.

Anyway, that’s it for now. Expect weekend posting to return on Saturday, May 1st.

Talking Pulp Update (1/4/2021): New Year Notification Nonsense!

Well, vacation’s over!

I’m back to working a dreadful and inhumane five-day work week for the first time since before Halloween. I’m a fan of four days on and three days off. An extra day of rest actually makes me more productive over four days of work than I typically am over five but whatever.

So I’ve noticed that my notifications don’t seem to pop up all that often and I didn’t see any of them over the course of my ten or so days off. WordPress has continued to suck in new ways for awhile now. So I guess I have to manually check this shit from now on, assuming I’ll remember because I like whiskey and edibles.

If I miss comments or even feedback and messages through the back end, it’s not my fault. I pay for all the premium shit, so WordPress should polish those fucking bells and whistles that the basic plan has, especially for ballers like me dropping extra coin.

Anyway, Happy New Year! Not that it’ll be all that happy thanks to further lockdowns, more restrictions made up as reactionary power grabs on the fly, the complete destruction of small businesses, skyrocketing suicide rates, crybaby “do as your told!” assholes and the continued erosion of personal freedoms! Can’t wait to see what Orwellian bullshit a new administration throws at us! Sorry, I try not to get political on here but life is really damn hard without strippers, buffets and movie theaters.

Oh, yeah… I live in Florida… so, never mind! Hooray me!

Talking Pulp Update (12/25/2020): It’s Christmas Time! So I’m Kind of On Vacation… Because That’s What I Do!

So I’m taking it easy this next week due to it being my annual week off between Christmas and New Year’s.

However, I schedule posts out in advance and will have some comic book reviews and Vids I Dig posts going up each day while I deal with my family and friends complaining that I only give them cash and gift cards.

It’s not my fault that they don’t own crypto wallets!

Maybe I should be better at buying presents and I did really damn good, last year. But this year, as with most years, I didn’t realize it was Christmas time until about December 20th.

It’s not my fault that my birthday is a week earlier! Honestly, that usually means that I’m hungover for 7-10 days after celebrating harder than Stallone’s abs in Rambo: First Blood, Part II.

Anyway, Merry Christmas to you and yours and thanks for reading Talking Pulp this year! My life has become significantly busier with some changes thanks to 2020 and its ancient curses but I keep working to keep this site alive.

So hopefully 2021 will be a much better year for all of us because I can’t imagine a year that’s any worse than this shitshow.